Some of the most memorable moments in Olympic history are those jaw-dropping upsets, when the huge underdog finds the miraculous ability to pull out the win. The 2024 Games were no different, as Paris delivered its own fair share of awe-inspiring moments where the massive favorites did not prevail. 

Here's the best upsets from the 2024 Paris Olympic Games

Without a doubt, one of the most exciting moments of the Games was the men's 1500m race on the track at the Stade de France.

Heading into the race, the story was about Norway's Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Great Britain's Josh Kerr. The two are stars of global running and have a well-documented rivalry, so everyone was wondering which one of them would this round at the 1500m in Paris.

It turned out neither would be standing atop the podium, as Team USA's Cole Hocker came barreling around the final turn and made his move, willing himself to a first-place finish in an Olympic record time of 3:27.65.

Moreover, the U.S. completed another upset in the race, as Ingebrigtsen was left off the podium entirely with American Yared Nuguse accompanying Hocker in the late push to claim the bronze medal for himself. 

For the last few Olympics, the spotlight of women's gymnastics has been on the legendary Simone Biles and Team USA. Heading into the women's floor final in Paris, the circumstances were no different.

Having already captured three gold medals at the 2024 Games in the women's team, all-around and vault competitions, it was no surprise that Biles was favored to grab her fourth at the floor competition. But while she put up a strong performance, earning silver, it was Rebeca Andrade who stole the show with a dazzling routine.

Andrade earned her first win in the event in her Olympic career and her second-ever Olympic gold medal, winning her first on the vault at the Tokyo Games. With her victory, she also became the most decorated gymnast in Brazil's history.

As she stepped to the top of the podium at the medal ceremony, Biles and Jordan Chiles bowed down from the lower steps, crowning Andrade the queen in an iconic moment.

Heading into Paris, the United States had never won a medal in rugby sevens, or women's rugby of any kind (15s or 7s), having never finished above fifth. At the 2024 Olympics, they became a sensational storyline that took over the opening days of the Games.

After dropping the semifinal to the eventual gold medalists in New Zealand, the Americans pulled off an incredible feat and took down Australia to win the bronze.

Not only were they major underdogs in the match, but they won the game in epic fashion, snatching the win from the jaws of defeat in the waning moments with an improbable score. After Australia took a 12-7 lead with just seconds left on the clock, they sent the kickoff deep and the rest was history. Alex Sedrick delivered a stiff arm to an Australian defender and suddenly broke free, dashing across nearly the entire length of the field to tie the game as time expired. She then calmy converted her own kick to seal the victory.

This one is not a singular moment, but rather a collection of losses that put an end to a historic run. Since the sport's Olympic debut at the Atlanta Games in 1996, a U.S. team has reached the podium in beach volleyball at every single Olympic Games... until Paris.

First, the men's team of Chase Budinger/Miles Evans and the women's team of Taryn Kloth/Kristen Nuss both fell in the Round of 16. Kloth and Nuss specifically were stunned in an upset by their neighbors up north, the Canadien pair of Brandie Wilkerson/Melissa Humana-Paredes.

Then, gold medal-hopeful teams in Kelly Cheng/Sara Hughes and Andy Benesh/Miles Partain both dropped their quarterfinal matches. It's safe to say U.S. beach volleyball will be looking to start a new medal streak in Los Angeles in 2028.

Ever since the 2008 Games in Beijing, two Chinese men have duked it out for gold in the table tennis men's singles title match at every Olympics. This streak came to an end in France's capital.

In the Round of 32, world No. 1 Wang Chuqin faced off with Sweden's Truls Moregard, the 26th-ranked player in the world heading into the Olympics. After winning the first pair of games, Moregard loss the next two to Wang to bring the match to a winner-take-all fifth game, where the Swede secured the close 11-9 win to knock off his top-ranked opponent.

The win would knock China out of that side of the bracket, preventing a fifth-straight all Chinese gold final. Moregard would go on to earn the silver medal, getting beaten by China's Fan Zhendong in the gold final.

No one thought U.S. cyclist Kristen Faulkner was a contender to win the women's road race in Paris, but that didn't seem to matter to her.

The Alaska native attended Harvard, where she was on the rowing team. After school in 2017, she was working in venture capital in New York City when she decided to try out a free cycling clinic, having never done the sport prior. From there she was hooked.

Fast forward seven years later and she qualified for the U.S. cycling team for the 2024 Paris Games. However, she was not even supposed to be competing in the road race, only coming to Paris to race for the United States track cycling team. Less than a month before the Games kicked off though, her teammate Taylor Knibb dropped out of the road race to focus on the triathlon and Faulkner received the call-up.

Not only did she join the race on late notice, but she went on to ride into a first-place finish. She made her move toward the end of the race and never looked back, surging to win the gold medal in one of the best stories of the Olympics.